Sarah Palin to Washington Post: I'm not ripping Rush
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is criticizing a report on a Washington Post blog claiming that she is going after conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh.
On Thursday the Washington Post blog The Plum Line posted an item under the headline "Palin Camp Rips Limbaugh, Hits His 'Retard' Comment as 'Crude and Demeaning.'"
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But Stapleton told POLITICO that the comment given to The Plum Line was not specifically aimed at Limbaugh.
"The Washington Post is trying hard to take the pressure off the White House by creating a side controversy, but it is missing the point," Stapleton said. "As the governor has said, it doesn't matter who says the 'r' word. It should no longer be part of our lexicon."
Plum Line blogger Greg Sargent posts his take here--he did indeed ask Palin's spokesperson to comment specifically on Limbaugh. On the other hand, I remember thinking at the time that as such statements go, "Gov. Palin believes crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others is disrespectful" does sound pretty conspicuously non-specific.
But of course this all just dances around the real issue, which is that Sarah Palin, former vice presidential nominee and the de facto standard-bearer for the teabag crowd, has not only blown her chance to prove that she wasn't just cynically exploiting her mentally challenged son for political gain, she has now gone out of her way to do exactly the opposite.
When Keith Olbermann brought up the whole Palin/Limbaugh thing a couple of days ago, my wife was certain that, as loathsome as Sarah Palin is in all sorts of ways, she was at least being sincere when she said she took offense at something she perceived as a slight against people like her son. This has been a very eye-opening experience for my wife.